


Leaving

by JoyBooth



Category: Pitch (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-08
Packaged: 2018-09-15 18:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9250520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyBooth/pseuds/JoyBooth
Summary: All the women in his life leave him, but not this time. This time he is going to run out before she gets the chance to.





	

It is a truth Mike Lawson knows better than his own name. All women leave. It started with his mother. She was constantly running. When ever life got complicated, they packed up and left. 

He met Megan Mitchel his junior year of high school. She was the most popular girl in Point Loma. On his first day, she smiled at him and he was a goner. They spent almost a year together. He thought she was the one. He went to family dinners at her house. He helped her babysit her little brother and sister. Her whole family came to his games, cheering him on. It was one of the best years of his life. He had a family. Then, one day he pulled up to her house and saw a moving van. Her father had been reassigned to Jacksonville. 

They tried to make it work long distance. They called each other everyday for the first week, but then they got busy with school and practice. Trying to find time to talk got harder and harder. The time difference didn’t do them any favors and before long the phone calls came less and less until they stop coming all together. One day she called to tell him she had met someone new.

He went to the battle cages and swung until his arms were numb. Then, he called Nicole West and invited her over to his house to watch GoldenEye. By graduation, he had dated half of the senior girls. He went off to college safe with the knowledge that he wouldn’t be fooled by love again. 

And he wasn’t, until the day he met Cynthia Morris. She was a TA for his art history class. She was smart and funny and had the best smile. It started out as tutoring, but soon study sessions turned into field trips to local museums. Then, they drove to LA to check out the Getty for a weekend. Before long they were spending most nights in her off campus apartment watching movies and cuddling on the lumpiest couch known to man. 

She didn’t love baseball, but that was ok with Mike. He had his team to talk stats with and a great girl to spend time with. He was happy, until she showed up at his dorm with a letter about an internship in Paris. He could see the excitement radiating off of her, and encouraged her to follow her dreams. When she left his room that night, he pawned the ring he had bought her and bought a car. 

Six months later he was drafted by the Padres. His dreams were coming true. He didn’t need a woman to make him happy. He was sure off it. As a hot shot rookie, he partied a lot, but he also quietly finished a degree in business through correspondence and night classes. Life was working out pretty well for Mike until he met Rachel. 

It was his third year with the Padres and he was at yet another post gamer presser, when a girl with bright green eyes and stunning red hair caught his eye. He winked at her and she blushed. She was gone before he could get her number, but he figured she would be back sometime, so he didn’t worry too much about it. 

Sure enough she turned up again a few weeks later. He found out her name was Rachel Patrick and she was a starting reporter for Fox. Her questions were always interesting, so he knew she was smart, but he kept missing the opportunity to talk to her alone. 

Finally, he talked his manager into arranging to give her an exclusive interview. He made sure everything was perfect. Planned for their interview to be at one of the hottest restaurants in town, ordered a very nice bottle of wine. Everything was going according to plan until she told him she was engaged. He shrugged it off, but their interview was stilted after that. Still, he enjoyed her company. He liked that she knew what he was talking about when he rattled off stats about different players. She even gave him some good ideas about how to beat the A’s in an upcoming series. 

They stayed on each others radars, always flirting when they had the chance, but he kept dating, because he had learned his lesson and he was never going to fall in love again. And then she turned up at his door in the middle of the night, in the pouring rain, to tell him that she had left her fiancé. 

Six months later she moved in, and six months after that they were married. It was perfect. He was in love. He finally had someone to cheer him on at games again. He had someone to talk to. He had someone to laugh with. They went on fabulous vacations in the off season. They talked about kids, but agreed it wasn’t the right time. She got a great job in LA, but it didn’t matter, he swore they would make it work. 

And they did for a while. She split her time between LA and San Diego. He spent the off season and any breaks in LA. It didn’t happen all at one time. She left him in little by little. There were times she said she would be there and then changed plans at the last minute. There were times he tried to call and didn’t hear back until the next day. There were times he said he would drive up to see her, but she encouraged him not to. Soon, they were spend more time apart than together. The day he realized he hadn’t seen his wife in month, he decided enough was enough. He drove to LA as soon as he got out of practice. When he got to the house and caught her in bed with some guy, he wasn’t even mad. Well, he was, but more than anything, he felt like he should have seen it coming. Women always left him. He was just a weigh station on the road to better things. 

The parade of groupies that came after Rachel were fun. He never went home with the same girl twice. It was a point of pride, or maybe a subconscious way to avoid developing any unwanted attachments. It worked though, until it didn’t. 

Until he looked across a crowded motel nightclub and saw Ginny Baker dancing like no one was watching and he felt something for the first time in years. Of course, he had to put a stop to said feeling as soon as he could, which led to him sitting down next to Amelia. 

Honestly, when he looked back at it, there could have been something between them, if not for the literal person between them. Amelia was smart, driven and beautiful, but even she fell into the Mike Lawson curse, pulling away when she saw him for the human disaster he truly was. 

So, the day he realized that he had fallen for Ginny Baker, he figured he would leave her before she got the chance to leave him. He waved his no trade clause and then tried to build walls around himself until he could get the hell out of there, but fate and Ginny Baker had other plans. She cornered him in the PT room teasing him into smiles. She rattled off stats at him, hoping to make him stay, but he pushed her away. He had to. They she taunted him at BP, her laugh making him remember all the times they had laughed together. Had it really been only 3 months. He hit one into the bleachers and she cheered. It was everything he wanted and then she teased that he would miss her, and his smile died. She had no idea. 

She sat next to him in the dugout. She always sat next to him in the dugout, but today he knew it would be for the last time. He hated not being able to play. He understood, but he hated it. At the bottom of the ninth he was pacing like a caged lion. All he wanted to do was help them win one more game. When the Dodgers brought in their lefty he wanted to scream. The team needed him, but skip just said his hands were tied. He gave up and went back to her, hoping to calm down a bit, but she told him to put on a helmet instead. 

He looked at her like she was crazy, but she just said it again. She was so sure of herself. Then se called to a camera man, joking that he had a crush on her and winking into the camera. He was annoyed for half a second, but then she turned to him with a look he had seen on the mound before. She had a plan and he knew she was going to make it happen. Skip tried to stop him, but she had his back, and then the whole stadium was full of fans who had his back. Skip gave him the ok, but he still turned to her. The nod that meant he knew what she had done for him and how much it meant. 

He walked to the plate ready to give her one last win. The crowd was on its feet. He could feel everyone counting on him. A deep breath, and then… dammit he swung, but he knew it was too late. He tried to shake it off, but then it happened again and all he could think was that he was going to let her down. She had given him this gift, knowing that he was leaving and he was going to let her down. He had to get a hit, but he froze. He got caught looking. He couldn’t believe it. He walked into the dugout defeated, not even hearing the screams of the crowd. When Skip called him and he realized that they were still chanting his name he couldn’t believe it. He had let them down, but they still loved him. He lifted his cap and said a final farewell to the fans, not missing Ginny’s huge grin shining up at him from the dugout. 

When she stopped by his chair after her shower, he was still angry at himself, but of course he took it out on her with a snarky sorry your poster boy let you down. She just shook her head and tried to encouraged him again. She said that she had plans with her brother, but to call if the team was getting drinks later. He brushed her off. There was no way any of these guys wanted to go out with the captain who was abandoning them. Her confusion was the hardest part. He could hear it in her voice as she said bye, but he didn’t respond. He couldn’t.  
Blip came over the moment she was out of the room, reading him the riot act. He knew he had made a mistake, but it was what he needed to do, and he didn’t want to even try to explain why. He pushed everyone away because it was easier that way. 

As he sat at the bar alone, waiting for a call from Oscar, he decided it couldn’t hurt to have one more night with her. After all, what would one night, one drink change. They had only known each other for three months for god’s sake. 

What he didn’t account for was the dress. Though once she said she had walked out on a date it made more sense. Then again, what did it mean that she had walked out on a date… why had she said she was going out with her brother? He could tell she was lying when she said some bullshit about not wanting him to feel bad for interrupting a date. She was a terrible liar. When she asked about his plans, he could stop himself from asking if she knew why he was leaving. She gave the most obvious answer, but he kept pushing. He didn’t know why. He had decided to leave. He wasn’t going to fall for her, and yet he kept pushing, even as she stuttered about “his teammates” not wanting him to leave. 

“What about you?”

She opened and closed her mouth and that’s when he knew for sure. She felt what he did, but she didn't say it, instead she just sighed. “Part of me wants you to leave for the same reason you want to leave.”

She looked at him and he could see it in her eyes, that awful mixture of desire and fear of being hurt, but she covered it quickly with a teasing comment about their mutual love of the game. He surprised himself when he started to list the things he would miss about her, but she gave as good as she got and by the end they were both laughing. His heart ached at thought of losing her. Their eyes met and he knew it was too late. All his walls and gruffness hadn’t kept her from his heart. 

For the first time in his life it was Mike who was leaving the woman he loved. The walked along the quiet street. Tell her, his heart whispered. 

“Ginny,”

“Ginny? That’s a first?” She teased. 

Was it? Had he really never called her by her name, he wondered. TELL HER! “I nailed your cleats…”

A smile broke across her face as big as he had ever seen. She threw her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a quick hug, but apparently neither of their bodies got the message, because time stopped as they stood on the street just holding each other. A giggle, a sigh, a breath, the brush of cheeks then noses, what were they even doing? Was it really going to happen?  
“We shouldn’t do this…”

He jumped back, “Yeah, of course, I don’t know what I was…”

“Here! We shouldn’t do this here,” she shook her head, handed her driver some money, then dragged him into another car that had pulled up while they were busy ignoring the world. 

The drive to his place was mercifully quick. Her lips were on his before his front door was completely closed. Then, her fingers were quickly working his shirt buttons and he suddenly came back to himself. 

“Hey, are you sure about this?” He asked. 

Her hands dropped and she stepped back. Opening and closing her mouth again as she tried to formulate a response and get a read on him at the same time. She stepped back further, disappearing into the shadow of the still dark house. “I can go if you…um, yeah, I should go,” her face was suddenly lit as her phone started to glow in her hand. 

“No, I just mean… “ it was now or never, cards on the table time. “The thing is everyone I’ve ever loved has left me, and that was ok, because they weren’t the one, but I think you are. I think you are the one for me, and if he do this and it doesn’t work out, I don’t know how I will…”

Ginny stepped into his arms, silencing him with a kiss. “I’m not going anywhere, you are, but we will figure it out, because I’m pretty sure you're the one for me too.”

“Oh thank god.” He groaned, his hands drifting to her perfectly shaped ass. 

“Now, can we have sex, or do you want to talk some more?”

“You could put me down for the sex and then maybe some talking, and then maybe some more sex, and then a little more talking.”

“I thought you had an early flight?”

“Screw it, I don’t need sleep, I just need you.”

"Well, then,” she said slowly reaching behind her back. He heard a zipper and then that black dress pooled at her feet. “You have me.” 

His eyes darkened even more and the talk was put on hold n favor of more preferable activities. Several ours later, Mike realized that his phone had been on silent. He opened one of the 20 texts from Oscar, and then turned to Ginny. 

“I’ve got good news and bad news.”

“Bad news first, always.”

“Well, you are going to have to get used having me around more than you had planned.”

She put it together almost immediately. “The trade fell through?”

“Yep,” he said. She could hear the nerves in his voice. 

“I thought I said bad news first?” She teased kissing him. 

He grinned when she pulled back. “So we are doing this? You and me?”

“You and me.”

**Author's Note:**

> I dont know guys. I started with this Idea in mind but now it's 7am and I haven't slept yet so if its complete garbage let me know. I was just thinking about Mike Lawson human disaster and how he got this way.


End file.
